Advocating for black women and the preservation of womanhood

Month: May 2016

This is not in anyway an advertisement, I’m only talking about my personal experience.

Since my family and I have been in El Paso I’ve exploring different ways to make extra money. We also had a ton of stuff in our new place that didn’t actually fit. So we decided to downsize and get rid of a few things. More specifically clearing out our extra bedroom of useless junk in order to create a guest bedroom.

Initially I tried some of the local yard sale pages on Facebook. They were all a bust! There was cattiness, flakiness, and over priced junk. So it made nearly impossible for me to sell anything and get a profit. Then a good friend told me about offer up, where she had recently bought a kitchen set for $75.

So I went out on a limb and listed a few items, all reasonably priced. I posted baby clothes, Dr.Browns baby bottles, baby bullet food processor, a brand new rice steamer, and a nice size dresser. All of the baby items got immediate hits, and the food processor shortly after.

All messages and inquiries were professional, and their weren’t any redundant questions. The app was immediately off to an amazing start. In a few hours alone I made about $100, without selling all my items. The remaining items are currently pending (just awaiting pick up). Once I sell those items I will have made $200 in a matter of hours!

The app is supper user friendly and convenient, for the buyer and the seller. I would suggest it for anyone trying to make a little extra money with anything worth buying. I’m definitely adding this to my list of ways to supplement our income!

On Friday the 13th I found myself watching a Freddy Friday marathon… This is by far my favorite series of slasher films and for the longest time I couldn’t figure out why. Maybe because I frequently had nightmares as a child, and go through periods where I have them for weeks at a time or maybe simply because Freddy brought personality to an era of silent slashers. Now that I’m a little older I realize Wes Craven sheds light on the darker sides of society, the side that really scares people because it’s true, real, and gritty. Let’s face it, Freddy is in fact a child molestor and killer. The town parents take upon themselves to punish him and silence the dark nasty secret of elm street. He seeks his revenge in the dreams of children who long suppressed These horrible memories. Children that he essentially groomed, gross right? This is actually inspired by the mcmartin case in the 1980’s where dozens of children were coerced into saying they had been molested and tortured.

But the movie in this series that stood out the most was number 3, the Dream warriors which took place in a mental institution. It was a failing one, let’s start with that. It’s obviously understaffed for one, we see very few on duty as teenagers die one by one in very gruesome obvious deaths. One patient sleep walks past a nurse and plummets to his death from a tower window. The mental health facility was in fact inspired by facilities meant to fix your troubled teens in the 1980’s. They were essentially prisons and asylums.

This is where I also noticed Freddy’s trend for preying on disadvantaged youth. Another real world problem. Every movie he escalates and adjust. Choosing victims that would be ignored, such as this film where they assume these kids are just crazy. He progresses to kids that come from truly problematic homes and preys on their most intimate nightmares. He does what real predators do preys on those with little to no support system, this particular film features an addict, a mute, and a wheelchair bound boy.

But their nightmares don’t stop when they’re sleeping, the nightmares are simply a reflection of real life. Freddy is adamant about holding this against them. Taryn the resident recovering addict receives sexual advances from a hospital employee, who offers her a trip to the pharmacy in exchange for her services. After turning him down and threatening to expose him, he tells her no one would believe her anyway. Freddy exploits this in her nightmare and kills her with an extremely sexual overdose.

Freddy doesn’t just haunt you in your dreams, he preys on your real life terrors and insecurities. They made Freddy the true predator, targeting and preying on the disadvantaged youth and knowing that no one would believe them. This is the true nightmare, Freddy is real and roaming the streets. He’s present anywhere children can be taken advantage of.

Although most modern day feminist credit the 1920’s and the suffragists as the original first wave feminist, Mary Wollstonecraft can be credited as the original founding mother of feminism. The vindications of the rights of women essentially lays the foundation of what feminism would ultimately become. This was in 1794! More than a century later! Wollstonecraft lays down yhe fundamental rights that all women deserve such as free education, equal job opportunities, equal representation, as well as encouraging the ambitions of women. Her ideals are obviously still relevant in this day and age, many we currently benefit due to the leaps and bounds we have made as far as progression. Yet we still remain stunted by patriarchy. The most relevant issues were free public education, slut shaming, and grooming of gender roles.

Wollstonecraf’s primary concern is the education of women and how it ultimately affects the lives and wellbeing of women. She briefly mentions our inferiority in terms of body stature and strength, but deterring education further oppresses women. Without proper education it’s impossible for women to even provide proper care to their children. The education of children begins at home, typically with the primary caregiver(their mother). A family with two educated and equally yoked parents is more likely to be well balanced and adjusted. Wollstonecraft proposed that boys and girls be educated together and receive the same education, for free.

In an era where men and women were both constrained by strict gender roles and expectations, being a sexual being was not one of the limited roles that women held. It was considered sexual deviance for women to enjoy and look forward to sex with their husbands, sex was meant reproduction alone and that’s it. Men were excused from their sexual indescretions, it was almost expected of them. Men had desires that needed to fulfilled whether it was with their wife or not. Women only had worth if they maintained their virginity and chastity. Premarital sex diminished their value and worth. Women were shamed while men were congratulated much like slut shaming today. This is obviously a very relevant double standard.

Unfortunately patriarchy will continue to play a role in the upbringing of our children because we groom them to adhere to specific gender roles. These gender roles were established so long ago that they are addressed in the text! We are sabotaging our children we are encouraging a vicious cycle which does nothing for women and their progression. Little girls are taught to be oblivious and adorable while little boys are ambitious and knowledge seeking. This ultimately makes them incompatible and creates a power struggle in households.

Wollstonecraft is obviously very relevant today; all the topics she touched on are highly debatable in this day and age. With all the progression we are still fighting for equality in classrooms, in the home, and the work place. Unhealthy gender roles further enforce patriarchy and continue the cycle of unhealthy relationships. We teach our children these double standards and reinforce the slut shaming, instead of derailing the cycle.these cycles further stunt the progression of women. As much credit as we would like the give the suffragettes of the 20’s, their work was paved by Wollstonecraft.